Updating Your Urgent Care Website: Are There Rules?

Website design, like all other forms of technology, are seemingly always evolving. If your urgent care website has been the same since the 1990’s, or even the early 2000’s, then it’s probably stuck in cyberspace and not being found by many people. Those that do happen to stumble upon it most likely click the back button faster than they can blink. So, when should you update your urgent care website?

Well, the truth is that you’re way past the expiration date on updating if you haven’t done so since the early 2000’s or before. Let’s go out a limb here and imagine that you’ve updated within the last 2-5 years. Sadly, this may mean that you’re still behind on the design trends, because things in the world of technology change quickly.

As your urgent care website should be focused on the user experience, keep in mind that certain design pieces do make a difference. Here are some of the best things that are still pretty popular:

High definition images

Hover images

Parallax scrolling

Infinite scrolling (also referred to as the never-ending scroll)

Background videos and animations

When used properly all of these elements have the ability to enhance a page’s content, but if you’re thinking of utilizing these to build up your urgent care marketing campaign just be careful not to overload the background and cause a distraction from your brand’s true message. Tasteful design displays do matter to how your website comes across to viewers.

Some will tell you there are no rules when it comes to deciding when to re-design or completely rebuild your urgent care website, but we’d say that due to the ever changing website design trends that a good rule of thumb is to check back every 2 years to see if things are still on the up and up.

We’d be happy to help you with your website and urgent care marketing. If your website is old school and you need some help bringing it up to speed, don’t hesitate to give Urgent Care Marketing 2 Point 0, Inc. a call @ 405-788-2619.

2 Signs That You Have An Outdated Urgent Care Website

If you are one of those urgent care owners that actually pays attention to your online ranking and you’ve noticed a gradual dip in traffic then you may be losing patients to other competitors. In part one of this series, we went over 2 signs that you have an outdated urgent care website. In case your website didn’t have either of those 2 problems, it may be a possibility that the next two topics are your reason for having a dud of a website.

Here are 2 more clues that your urgent care website is obsolete.

1.) You Aren’t Utilizing Search Engine Optimization (SEO): When considering Urgent Care Marketing online, search engine optimization is not optional. It is vitally essential to the success of your urgent care. The goal of search engine optimization is not to cheat the search engine, but instead create a great experience for the user and communicate to search engines that you are relevant to their needs. If you aren’t using appropriate keywords you’re not going to rank organically, because you aren’t allowing search engine optimization to communicate your intentions to search engines.

2.) Your Website Is On Page 5 Or Beyond On Search Results: Speaking from the experience of everyone on our marketing team, none of us will ever go beyond page 5 to look for a resource we need. We’re not the only ones, either! Polling many customers (potential patients) brings us evidence that the majority of people never even click past page 1 of search engine sites like Google. If you’re website is on page 5 or beyond then there is a great change that your urgent care website is never found by any of those people.

If you’d like to learn more, give us a call. If you find that your website is outdated and you need help with your urgent care website overhaul, we’re here to help! Give us a call @ 405-788-2619.

2 Signs You Have An Outdated Urgent Care Website

How long has it been since you’ve seen any activity on your urgent care website? Are you even keeping track? If you are looking after it and you have noticed that little to no traffic is hitting your urgent care website, then chances are you’re losing out on patients. We know you’re busy trying to run your clinic, but marketing yourself online is a vital component to staying relevant to those looking to be treated by your doctors. Are you not certain if your website is applicable?

Here are 2 clues your urgent care website is obsolete.

1.) You Don’t Have The “Never-Ending Scroll”: As you may know, many patients will be viewing your urgent care website on their cell phones or similar mobile devices. Nothing is more irritating to a cell phone user who is trying to access a website that isn’t optimized well for smaller screens. Having to move the screen around in order to read content is a good way to make patients click the back button and look elsewhere. The newest trend is to have information on your homepage that is just enough content to help people understand what’s going on, but having it in a format that allows them to simply scroll up and down (not left, right, up, down, minimizing the screen and decreasing it with their fingers).

2.) You Have No Ties To Social Media: More than half of the world is online and on social media. Believe it or not, people do look at social media for information about businesses from time to time. They will want to look at the “about” section, see your pictures, know what you have going on and see if you’re offering any helpful information. If your website has no links to social media then you’re doing yourself a giant disservice. In addition to achieving higher rankings on search engines, urgent care websites with plenty of social media tie-ins will attract more patient traffic straight from their networks.

If you’d like to learn more, come back to read part 2 of this series! If you find that your website is outdated and you need help with your urgent care website overhaul, we’re here to help! Give us a call @ 405-788-2619.

Urgent Care Website Updates Vital To Validity

Websites aren’t like the famous rotisserie machine with the tagline “set it and forget it”. If you haven’t touched your website in over a year, there may be things that are outdated. With each passing year, technology has brought in a set of guidelines to follow. Your website might not be relevant to what it popular right now. In part one of this series, we talked about 2 reasons why it is important to keep your urgent care website updated. Today, we’re going to touch on 1 more reason why you should update your urgent care website.

Updates make your urgent care look put-together.

We saved the biggest reason for last, because it’s the most noteworthy! As an urgent care facility treating patients, you certainly don’t want to look unprofessional. If anyone needs to look well put-together and organized, it’s an urgent care. The first place people will look for you, is online. Do you want your website casting you in a bad light? We hope not. No one wants to even think about visiting a doctor that hasn’t got it together. Sloppy websites bring to mind sloppy care and who knows where those mental images could go.

Aside from potential patients, think about your current patients. The only way to keep them coming back to your website, helping you to stay relevant on search engines, is to give them a reason to want to come back. The first step is bringing your website out of the 1990’s and to reflect that you’re present in 2016! The second step is to offer minor updates every so often, such as latest news, recent activities, or important information found in your blog.

PS: Don’t actually promise updates, unless you plan to provide them.

In case you missed the first part of this post, let it be known that we fully understand the need to update your urgent care website, because even we have had to have a transformation of our own.

Urgent Care Website Updates Vital To Validity

Perhaps, when you first put your website up it was the best thing since sliced bread, but there’s one thing you have to know and that is that nothing remains the same, especially in the digital world. New trends are always flowing and what was deemed relevant a few years ago may not be what gets you noticed, today. It’s crucial to update your website, especially if you’re still using something that looks like it was from the 1990’s. Today, we’re going to touch on 2 out 3 reasons why you should update your urgent care website.

1.) Updating makes search engines happy! Ok, so we’re not saying that search engines like Google have feelings; we’re not crazy. What we mean by making search engines happy is that they are programed to sort through content and deliver researchers the most relevant data possible. When you make modern updates to your site it makes your website look “alive” with activity. Now, we’re not saying that your urgent care website will sky rocket to the number one location on Google’s front page, but the changes might just boost your ranking one step closer.

2.) It allows you to convey your message. Yes, potential patients will be seeking for your urgent care and they need to know what services you offer, where you are located, and what times you are available, but there is more to a website than being a digital business card. Updating your website to allow for a blog location is important! Having a blog with ideas, issues, explanations of illnesses, and important information can help you be more relatable to patients and allows you to convey the message that you are there to help.

Having undergone a website transformation of our own in the last few months, we understand why updating your urgent care website is so important. Not only does it allow you to get a newer, sleeker design, but it also brings credibility to your urgent care business. Need more reasons to update your website? Tune in next month for part two of this series!